The delegates will debate whether the bar should support several measures, including a bill before the General Assembly that would end common-law marriages in the state. The delegates also will consider proposed reform to the state's workers' compensation system, the bar's communications coordinator Leigh Gulledge said.

The convention will run Thursday through Sunday. Toal will speak Thursday on "tips from the bench" at the Trial and Appellate Advocacy seminar and will deliver State of the Judiciary remarks during a luncheon Friday.

Keynote speaker at the lunch will be George Wolfe, acting general counsel of the U.S. Treasury Department and former director of economic development for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.

First District Rep. Henry Brown and 2nd District Rep. Joe Wilson, both Republicans, and 5th District Democrat Rep. Jim Clyburn will meet Friday with the bar's senior lawyers in a seminar of the state of the U.S. health care system.

Former U.S. astronaut Alan Bean will speak Saturday at the convention's Quality of Life program.

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